We Are From Hazleton: A Baseball Celebrity Helps Bring His Divided Pennsylvania Hometown Together

by Chris Echegaray & Susan Eaton

Hazleton, Pennsylvania

June 2013

Many municipalities have community centers. An increasing number of cities have even opened immigrant welcome centers in recent years. But Hazleton ONE is something else entirely.

“This is not a place that is only for immigrants. And it is not just an open gym either. The very explicit goal of this place and of this effort is clear: It is to bring two currently much separated communities together,” said Bob Curry, the Hazleton Integration Project’s board president. “Yes, we will provide particular services. But the larger mission of integration will guide us in everything that we do. Services are one thing. Integration is quite another. . . . It’s a longer range goal.”